Mission to Rocket Town
by sanctum-c
Summary: Tifa (ex-SOLDIER) has recovered from her fall into the Lifestream in time to help strike back at Shinra and their plans for the Giant Materia.


The decision to split the party had not come easily, but there was little choice. They needed to stop Shinra destroying the giant materia – not least given the rarity and potential power of the crystals. But on top of that, the best calculations of explosive yield anyone in Cosmo Canyon could compute, a Giant Materia explosion far short of sufficient to destroy something the size of Meteor. And that was not getting into if anything so mundane could damage the magical space rock. Shinra took no notice of any such warnings; why would they? They had a tendency to only ever react to circumstances. Much like the destruction of Sector Seven and the near execution of Barret, the current plan to launch Aeris's rocket right at the falling rock was right in line with expectations.

"I'm going to Rocket Town." Aeris announced her decision once they learned of Shinra's intentions. She glanced around the room. "I spent years keeping the Shinra-26 ready to launch. Not about to let them waste it on shooting down Meteor."

Tifa nodded. "Okay. One for Rocket Town. Anyone else?"

Aeris fidgeted. "I was… kind of hope you'd come too?" She lowered her voice. "We haven't had a chance to talk since-"

"Yeah." Tifa's cheeks heated slightly; the rest of Avalanche sported amused, knowing looks at their leader's flustered nature. She recovered fast; her eyes narrowing as she surveyed the room. "So. Me and Aeris will go to Rocket Town. We also need one team for North Corel and one for Junon."

"I'll go to North Corel." Nanaki's tail flicked from side to side. "They may not accept me even now, but-" He sighed. "I still need to atone for my past decisions." Tifa nodded. Nanaki was still too hard on his past actions.

"I'll go too." Reeve nodded, his red cloak still billowing without wind to move it.

"Suppose I could take on Junon." Vincent still looked immaculate in his dark suit. He smiled. "I doubt they've had enough time to revoke all my accesses." The remainder of the party split between the two groups. Barret and Yuffie elected to join Vincent; Cloud decided to join Nanaki's party. "Looks like most of us are going East."

Tifa nodded. "If you can drop us near Rocket Town-"

"I had another idea." Aeris laid her hand on Tifa's arm. "We have a few chocobos onboard-" She broke off and smiled at Tifa's inquisitive glance. "Yeah, we still need to catch you up on one or two things while you were out of it." She glanced around at the others. "But why slow ourselves down? Drop us off here with a chocobo and then the rest of you can be on your way. What do you say?"

"That works." Tifa blinked at her.

"Great!" Aeris hurried towards the door. "Let's get moving; sooner we get moving, the sooner I can stop them launching."

"You heard her." Tifa ran to catch up. "Keep your PHS's on and good luck!" And that was how Tifa wound up sat behind Aeris on a yellow Chocobo. Aeris urged the bird into a run and the Highwind set off towards the North Corel. A jolt nearly sent Tifa flying from the back of the Chocobo and she clung onto Aeris's waist. "Do you have a plan?" she called over the wind rushing around them.

"Well-" Aeris's attention was fixed on the landscape ahead. "Theoretically the rocket can be disabled at a few points, but the cockpit has the final overrides. If we can't get into the control room-"

"-then we need to actually get in the rocket?" Tifa completed the sentence.

"Yeah." Aeris glanced over her shoulder. "I don't mind doing that myself; leave you to the get to the ground-crew while I get onboard."

"We should probably stick together. Try one – and if we're short on time, the other." Aeris nodded. They rode on in silence. "Thank you for trusting me."

"Why wouldn't I?"

Tifa took a deep breath, her pulse speeding up. "What I did before… Sephiroth… Jenova-" She fell silent, and more worryingly so did Aeris. The chocobo passed through Nibelheim, the facsimile town passing in a blur.

"I know that wasn't you." Aeris shook her head. "I can't believe you'd do that. Didn't you say it yourself?" She glanced back again. "There's not one of us you don't trust. Sometimes Sephiroth was stronger. But sometimes you were. You stopped yourself at the altar-" She cut off. The emotional wound was still raw in all of them. Despite Aeris's comforting words, it was impossible to ignore how close Cid came to death by Tifa's hand – and- No. No, Yuffie had insisted she needed to get past the guilt. There was nothing he could have done when Sephiroth fell and- Tifa shifted her arms and hugged Aeris tighter. "Sorry."

"No. No it's fine." Tifa wiped fiercely at her watery eyes. The wind was responsible. "I-" What could she say?

"Do you want to go somewhere when this is over? Just the two of us?"

"Huh?" Tifa blinked.

"Back to Costa del Sol maybe. Lounge on the beach and try and relax." Aeris flicked the reins and sent the chocobo bounding down from cliff to cliff as they descended Mount Nibel. "Or if you like, the others can come too."

"That sounds… good," Tifa said. "The two of us-" She tensed; they were nearly to Rocket Town.


End file.
